A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Non-precancels of Elgin National Watch

The Elgin National Watch Company was one of America's great watch companies; it closed operations in 1968.  Occasionally cancels like those below show up in collections or dealer stocks, looking much like proper printed precancels.  I've kept a page in my album of this material dedicated to the ENWCo cancels for years, figuring it important to have examples showing why these stamps were unambiguously not precanceled.  

The first two stamps below look very much like precancels, and I initially assumed them to be.  However, an examination of their stamps and cancels on document fragments leads to a different conclusion.

E. N. W. Co. - Elgin National Watch Company

Both examples below (and I have several others) show that the cancels were being placed on the stamps after they were applied to what were likely checks or drafts.  The cancels tie the stamps to the fragments in both examples.  What is almost certain is that the company had a canceling device that used metal type capable of applying a rather neat and clean cancel to a stamp on document.  

I believe this type of device might have also been used by a few other individuals and institutions.  I'll provide an example in the next post.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Possible Proprietary Cancel of Charles E. Cornell

Charles E. Cornell was a manufacturer of products that required the payment of proprietary taxes during the 1898 tax period, including cosmetic soaps and other skin products.  His printed precancel is known on the five eighths cent proprietary, and a similar cancel is also known on the half cent documentary.  The question is whether or not the half cent stamp below is that of Mr. Cornell.  It appears to be printed, but it also might be a handstamp.  This cancel belongs in a category of cancels requiring further proof or documentation.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Proprietary Cancel of Dr. Fahrney & Son

Richard Fullerton limted his documentary printed precancel list to railroad related companies, perhaps because so few other firms chose to use printed precancels.  However, just as there is evidence of two trust companies in Philadelphia making use of printed precancels on bonds, there are at least two, and likely more, proprietary firms that used these cancels on 1898 documentary revenue stamps.  

To the E. S. Wells cancels on the two cent documentary shown in a previous post is added the Dr. Fahrney & Son cancel.  The example on the half cent documentary stamp shown below was shown on this site for the first time in 2014.   It is reprised here as an example of a printed precancel that should probably be in an updated list of these cancels.  

This cancel appears fully legitimate as a printed version of the Dr. Fahrney cancel, as it appears almost exactly like the cancel on the five-eighths stamp further below.  The question remains, then, why Dr. Fahrney might have used a cancel on stamp primarily intended for use by insurance companies.  My only theory is that the stamps canceled to help uprate a surplus of lower value proprietary stamps so that the proprietary stamps could be used up.  Based on the example of the five-eighths cent stamp below, we know Dr. Fahrney & Son used that value.  A half-cent stamp would have helped uprate an oversupply of eigth cent stamps for items taxed at five-eighth of a cent.  Other combinations were possible.  

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Proprietary Cancel of E. S. Wells

E. S. Wells made nostrums for humans including medicines for corns, toothaches, and itching.  But the company might have been best known for rat poison.  I've featured this company and these stamps on this site back in 2014.  Follow the link to learn more.  Today the focus is on the stamps and their cancels.  E. S. Wells is the first of several proprietary product companies to be presented here that used printed precancels on the proprietary series of stamps that also applied precancels to documentary stamps.  

The known use of their cancel on documentary stamps is on the two cent battleship; the company used its electrotyped cancel of 1898 and adapted it for 1899 by planing off part of the bottom loop of the 8 of 1898.  The block below is the only known example I know of.  An example of their cancel on the 5/8 cent proprietary is provided below.  

As with the Provident Savings Life and the bond cancels, the E. S. Wells cancels are not included included in Fullerton's list;  Fullerton contained his list only to railroad-related printed precancels.  

Scott RB23, 5/8 cent proprietary

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: the United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company

The United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company was under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad, but issued their own bonds.  The stamp below almost certainly came from a bond, though the copy below has been removed from its orginal document.  The 1902 Poor's Manual of Railroads lists a 50 year mortgage bond that was issued in 1901; this stamp likely came from that bond.  The quest begins for a copy of this bond!

Based on the Poor's Manual reference below, the cancels were likely produced in Philadelphia as were the Girard Trust cancels, as Girard Trust was a Philly based company.  

 1902 Poor's Manual of Railroads.  The relevant UNJRR&CCo bond is number five below, issued in 1901 and maturing March 1, 1951:

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Girard Trust Company

In the 1898 War Revenue Law, bonds (the financial instrument version, as a opposed to insurance surety or guarantee bonds), were taxed at a rate of five cents per $100 of face value.  Instruments like these were often sold at a face value of $1000, so that the usual tax on these bonds amounted to 50 cents.  Two types of printed precancels are known on the 50 cent battleship: a Girard Trust Company cancel and a United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company cancel.  The GT Co. cancel is known on document; several canceled complete bonds for the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad Car Trust are known.  The United New Jersey RR&C Co and the Girard Trust cancels were almost certainly produced by the same company or person; they use what appears to be the same all caps typeface.

The United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Co cancel will feature in the next post.

The Girard Trust Co. canceled stamps were placed at the bottom center of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf bonds.

Bond 168 of 1750 issued; presumably there were at least 1750 of these precancels made:

Bond 180 of 1750 issued:

Bond front:

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Provident Savings Life Assurance Society

The Provident Savings Life Assurance Society (PSLAS) produced the most significant array of printed precancels of any company, including railroads.  Because they were in a very different business than the railroads and express companies, they were subject to different taxes, and made regular use of different stamp values.  PSLAS primarily sold life insurance, which was taxed at eight cents per $100 insured.  In addition, forty percent was to be paid on the first weekly premium for any life insurance policy.  A result of these taxes was that insurance companies made frequent use of the 40 and 80 cent documentary stamps in addition to the dollar documentaries to cover the taxes on larger life policies.  

PSLAS printed precancels have been identified on six different stamps, including the 40 cent and 80 cent documentaries, and the Scott  R173, R174, R175 and R182 dollar values.  The cancels consist of a solid outer circle, 20mm in diameter, a thinner inner circle, and PROVIDENT SAVINGS LIFE inscribed in an arc inside the inner circle.  The cancels come in either black or red depending on the stamp denomination except for the forty cent stamp, which is known with both black and red cancels.  Shades of orange red may also be found on the 40 cent stamps.

Of the stamps I have seen that have dates, all appear to have been canceled sometime in 1900.  By 1900, R173 and R174 were issued with hyphen-hole perforations, and the PSLAS printed cancels are only known with HH perfs on those stamps.  Though the 40 and 80 cent stamps were also issued with HH perforations, I have not found the PSLAS cancel on those stamps.  

PSLAS also produced other cancels that were not printed but were likely precancels; a 40 cent stamp is known with a PSLAS perfin and the R175 and R176 dollar value stamps are known with handstamps in black that are similar in appearance to the printed cancels.  Examples of these cancels are shown below.

black cancel

orange-red cancel

forty cent pair with red-orange cancel

stamps courtesy of David Thompson

red cancel

black cancel

red cancel

 R175 pair with red cancel

red cancel

black cancel

black cancel

PSLAS perfin

My guess is that this perfin was applied as a precancel to this stamp, though an example on document would help confirmation.

PSLAS black handstamp

Made to look like the printed precancels, these handstamps may also have been applied as precancels.

PSLAS black handstamp

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: Non-Fullerton List Cancels

From the collection of Frank Sente.  Is this cancel legit?

In 1952, Richard Fullerton confined his 1898 documentary printed cancel list to the precancels of railroads and railroad-related express companies in addition to two philatelically suspicious street railways.  In a previous post in this series (and the August 2024 American Philatelist) I've highlighted a railroad missed by Fullerton that was a part of family of railroads included in his list, the Tyler Southeastern Railway.  I also added many varieties and types that were not listed by Fullerton.  The upcoming series of posts, however, will highlight a range of Fullerton unlisted items that range from railroads to insurance companies, mimeo cancels seeking a proper identification, philatelic contrivances, and cancels that appear to be precancels but are not.  Stay tuned!

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Street Railways

The Union Street and Detroit and Wyadotte Street Railway cancels are somewhat mysterious.

What are they?  The two cent documentary battleship was primarily used for paying the two cent check tax, and examples can be found on railroad checks and drafts for settling charges between the railroads.  However, these Street Railway items are not so easily explained.  These two stamps, both without gum, appear to be the only examples ever found of street railway printed precancels, whether on or off document.  And street railways had no need to settle charges between themselves for car service or freight forwarding. as they provided local, primarily urban, passenger transport.  

While there are other rare, and currently one-off railroad precancels that are part of the 1898 documentary precancel oeuvre, including the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines RR one cent stamp and the Tyler Southeastern Railway one cent stamp, both of these railroads were a part of larger railroad systems that made heavy use of precanceling.  In the case of the Detroit & Wyandotte, and the Union Street, there is no known association between the street railways and other companies that used precancels.  

The fundamental question is whether these cancels are legitimate.  These stamps found their way to my collection from Joyce's 1898 documentary precancel stockbook.  And they undoubtedly found their way into Fullerton's 1952 list through Mr. Joyce.  So Joyce preferred to think of them as legit.  But I think more is needed to believe that these cancels are more than a contrivance.   If you know of anything that could speak to the legitimacy of these stamps, please contact me at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Adams Express Company Mimeographed Cancels

Despite the fact that the big express companies likely used as many or more one cent battleship stamps as a function of their business as any company in the United States, railroads included, and they were the primary method of retail shipping in the country, only two companies, American Express and National Express, are known to have precanceled the one cent battleship.  

The express companies functioned as retail shipping agents for the railroads.  For while railroads provided retail service to passengers, they did not receive and forward retail packages.  That service was subbed out to the express companies, including the large and dominant companies like American Express, Wells Fargo, US Express, and Adams Express.  

Adams Express is known for many handstamp types on the one cent and other battleship values, but not for printed cancels.  The two cent stamp is another matter.  Yet for Adams Express these are rare and rather obscure.  Fullerton lists three dates for Adams Express mimeographed cancels: August 12 1899, October 25 1899, and November 19 1900.  Examples of the latter two are shown below.  I have never seen the August 12 cancels, which come in two types:  one using four lines of type and a second type that uses three.  Likely used on checks, I have yet to see a used example of one of these two cent stamps on document.

If anyone has examples of the August 12, 1899 cancels, please send scans to 1898revenues@gmail.com.

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: National Express Uses

The first item below is a simple used Type two 189_ roulette Nat. Ex Co. block of four with a manuscript cancel.  I'm including the block because NatEx multiples seem to be relatively scarce.

Like AMEX, the NatEx precanceled battleships were used almost exclusively on bills of lading and their duplicates.  Here are a couple of examples.  There are multiple examples of precancels used on a competitor's or other company's bill of lading.  Below is a NatEx type one on an Adams Express BOL.  

A standard NatEx bill of lading with a type two 189_ roulette cancel:

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: National Express Company Collectible Varieties

National Express produced only a few known varieties.  Only one major variety is known, the invert immediately below, though it was unlisted by Fullerton.  Fullerton listed a missing period after the Ex on the 1900 hyphen-hole.  I have not seen one, but have identified an unambiguously high period after the "Nat" on the type one.

Major Variety:

National Express Type two, 1900, invert.  Ex-Tolman, unlisted by Fullerton

Minor Variety:

National Express Type one, with high period after "Nat"; ex-Tolman, unlisted by Fullerton

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the National Express Company's Collectible Types

National Express was effectively owned and controlled by American Express.  Frank Haigh Dixon in the July 1905 edition of The Atlantic Monthly wrote:

"The National Express Company is regarded as but an offshoot of the American, and an examination of the directorates of the two companies confirms the general impression.  President James C. Fargo of the American is a director of the National, while President Livingston and Vice-president Ledyard of the National are both directors of the American."

Dixon didn't get much deeper in spelling out the management connections between the two.  One simple demonstration of their connection is their precancels:  each National Express precancel has an American Express doppelganger.  The AMEX and NatEx type one and type twos are essentially the same, though the NatEx precancel has not yet been found with the 1901 year date.  

So as with the AMEX, there is a type one serifed cancel, and type twos that are smaller and non-serifed.

Nat. Ex. Type one 189_ precancel on one cent roulette.

Nat. Ex. Co. Type two 189_ precancel on one cent roulette.

Nat. Ex. Co. Type two 189_ precancel on one cent hyphen-hole.

Similar to the American Express 189_ hyphen-hole stamps, the National Express 189_ hyphen-hole stamps are the scarcest of all the National Express types.

 

Nat. Ex. Co. Type two 1900 precancel on one cent hyphen-hole.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the AMEX Type Two Henry Tolman Variety Typology

Very early in the publication of this blog, back in 2009, I ran a series of posts on the material below, which was in Henry Tolman's (ARA Member #25) 1898 precancel collection.  Rather than roll out these stamps one at a time like I did in 2009,  I'm simply posting all four pages of his subtypes of the type 2 AMEX precancels.  

The subtypes include everything from inking variations to alignment of the year date under "X" of the cancel.  There is a bit of fly-specking going on here, which I find much more interesting as long as I'm not the one identifying the idiosyncracies of these stamps.

Note that I've removed a couple of stamps from the pages to add to other portions of my collection.

The missing stamp at left in the middle is a Fullerton listed variety, "No period after "Ex".  I've posted that stamp in the varieties post.

The mising stamp above is the stamp with the "Wetherell's Express" handstamp, previously posted in the AMEX uses post.

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: American Express Printed Precancels with Precancel Handstamps

These cancels are somewhat unusual.  All the stamps below have the normal AMEX printed precancels.  But all of them also have handstamps intended to make the year date current.  It seems that one or more AMEX offices applied handstamp precancels, using a purplish magent ink to add a partial or full year date.  We don't know for sure, but I figure it likely that this process was applied across several AMEX offices while the "189_" year date was used in the printed cancel.  All the stamps below are of the "189_" variety save for the last stamp which has a printed cancel with a 1900, plus the 1900 handstamp.  

Richard Fullerton included most of these handstamps in his list of printed cancels; I'll indicate the non-Fullerton items below.  Fullerton was a precancel collector, was a member of the Precancel Stamp Society, and wrote an article on these revenue precancels for a special edition of Linn's Stamp News.  My guess is that Fullerton included these items in his list of printed cancels as the handstamps were also precancels, like the printed portion of the cancel.  Additionally, the most significant revenue collector of the era, and perhaps ever, Morton Dean Joyce, collected these handstamps.  They were well represented in his stockbook of the Fullerton listed items.

The stamp above is presented as an example that helps demonstrate that the handstamps were applied as precancels.  The stamp below is a Type 2 189_ hyphen-hole, which is a scarce stamp (the HH version of the 189_ cancel is somewhat rare).  But the stamp also has a 1900 handstamp immediately below the 189_ date, and the bottom of a 1900 handstamp at the top of the stamp that had been applied to the stamp above when the stamps were still part of an intact sheet or multiple.  

Below are nine collectible types of these handstamp cancels. Six were listed by Richard Fullerton.  The three unlisted items were in Joyce's collection of these items.  Several of these examples came from the Henry Tolman collection in the Siegel sale in 2007.
 

AMEX Type One, with 6mm high "8" handstamp.

Fullerton listed; ex-Tolman.

AMEX Type One, with 7mm high "8" handstamp.

Unlisted by Fullerton; ex-Joyce.

AMEX Type Two, roulette, 189_ date, with 10mm high "8" handstamp.

Fullerton listed; ex-Tolman.

AMEX Type Two, roulette, 189_ date, with 6.75mm high "8" handstamp.

Fullerton unlisted; ex-Joyce.

AMEX Type Two, roulette, 189_ date, wtih 10.5mm high "9" handstamp.

Fullerton listed, ex-Tolman.

AMEX Type Two, roulette, 189_ date, wtih 8mm high "9" handstamp.

Fullerton listed, ex-Tolman.

AMEX Type Two, hyphen-hole, 189_ date, wtih 6.25mm high "1900" handstamp.

Fullerton listed, ex-Joyce.

AMEX Type Two, hyphen-hole, 189_ date, wtih 4.0mm high "1900" handstamp.

Fullerton listed, ex-Tolman.

AMEX Type Two, hyphen-hole, 1900 date, wtih 4.0mm high "1900" handstamp.

Fullerton unlisted, ex-Tolman.